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Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Dear Readers, I’m
thrilled to introduce you to my long-time friend Arlene James. She lived not
far from me for years, but then she moved to my home state of Arkansas. We keep in touch through the
Internet now. She’s been a successful author for a long time, and you may have
read some of her series. This book today is starting a new, and very different,
series.

Welcome, Arlene. Tell
us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

I find bits and pieces of myself in my characters. This one
likes the same colors. That one struggles with the same habit(s). They enjoy
the same pleasures or suffer from the same familial difficulties or
insecurities. They struggle with the similar questions of faith that I’ve had
to overcome or discover the answers to questions I’ve asked in the past. They’ve
been widowed, as I have, or brokenhearted or seen their prayers answered … In
some way, every character is me; and yet, no character is truly me.

What is the quirkiest
thing you have ever done?

In writing, I suppose I’m doing it now, though the Chatam
House series, with its triplet aunties, would have been my answer before the
HOBBY RUN Variety Praise Band series.

If you’re not talking about writing, then I suppose that
agreeing to marry my husband on our first date would be considered pretty
quirky, but then I’d already met him in a dream. Literally.

When did you first
discover that you were a writer?

I think I knew I wanted to write almost as soon as I could
read. I very clearly remember sitting at the dinner table when I was no older
than nine and telling my dad that I wanted to write. His advice was to get to
it. I was publishing by 7th grade, thanks to an English teacher who had me
writing fiction pieces and, unbeknownst to me, submitted them to contests and
various magazines. God bless that woman.

Tell us the range of
the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I really love anything historical because that is NOT what I
write. I love westerns. I love science fiction and speculative fiction. I love
nonfiction and read lots of political stuff. I read lots of Bible study
material. I get lost in research sometimes. I love a good mystery, but I have
to admit that I’m not big on suspense because I just don’t believe most of it
can happen the way it’s written. I think that comes from being the stepdaughter
of a very successful police investigator.

How do you keep your
sanity in our run, run, run world?

We live in a beautiful, quiet place here in NW Arkansas near
our oldest son and granddaughters. Here, our closest neighbors are ½ mile away,
and when we drive into town, traffic is minimal. We do have rush hour, and it
does last a whole hour. Almost. I work a great deal, more than full-time,
truthfully, so I don’t see my son and grandgirlies every day, but my Saturdays
are given to basketball (both girls are real stand-outs) and my Sundays to
church. My husband is an artist, and he has other things going on, so it’s
usually just us and the dogs here. That allows me to work as much as I have to
without going insane. I do have other interests. I’m the secretary of a
non-profit agency in our area, and that requires a good deal of my time. We
have many friends, and I love to see them, but unlike most of them, I am not
retired and I don’t expect to be any time soon. Then there are my dogs. It’s
good to be adored.

How do you choose
your characters’ names?

My characters kind of name themselves. I’m working with one
now who insists her name is Jos. That’s rather unconventional, so I had to come
up with something reasonable to make that work as a sobriquet. It turns out
that she’s named Jo Jessamyn, and her family shortens it to Jos. Those not
close to her don’t know any better and call her “Jo,” which she hates, but then
she reminds herself that her mother is called “Girly,” and no one but her
father knows her mother’s real name. The characters seem to come up with their
own given names, but surnames are a challenge. I often go through several
before I find one that feels right and isn’t repetitive. After ninety-plus
books, just not repeating myself is an issue.

What is the
accomplishment that you are most proud of?

My children, hands down. I was told I’d never be able to
carry a child to term, and I fought hard for the two I was able to birth,
suffering numerous miscarriages along the way. Perhaps that’s why I tried to
raise everyone else’s children, too. LOL. When people ask me how many children
I have, I never know exactly what to tell them. Um, two for sure. Three, pretty
solid. Could be four. Maybe five. I love them all. I’m proud of them all. God
had blessed me, especially in my sons and with a husband who was willing to
take all comers.

If you were an
animal, which one would you be, and why?

I was raised on a ranch, so I’m tempted to say a horse, but
the truth is I’d probably be a dog. My two mutts are basically useless, but
they love without question and spend most of their waking moments at my side.
They are slavishly devoted and as happy to see me after an absence of five
minutes as five days. They are so easily pleased: an occasional pat, a little
rub, a slice of my apple … My husband says they are big furry doorbells because
they let us know anytime anyone is on the place long before any visitor can
make his or her way to the door. I can hear Silky, the 85-pounder, snoring on
her bed behind my chair as I type this. When I get up and go in the other room,
she will be at my heels. Her sister, Bean, will be waiting by the fire for me
to sit down, then she’ll creep up into my lap, all 55 pounds of her, and lay
her head on my shoulder. They are happy, utterly content. Sounds good to me.

What is your favorite
food?

Only one? I suppose I have to say Italian, but I love to
cook, and I can’t think of many things that I don’t like. My sons are great
cooks, too, real foodies, and we’ve all been blessed to travel extensively, so
we’ve gotten to eat in some great places, but we all agree that if there is one
place we’d all go back to just for the food, it would be Italy.

What is the problem
with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Hm, my problem has always been that I have more ideas than I
can get to; not enough hours in the day or days in the week. Too often, what
publishers think the reading public wants is not what I want to write.
Publishers are always looking for the next big thing, then they all jump on the
bandwagon and beat the horse to death. When something catches the public’s
interest, they try to replicate it a billion times over, all the while waiting
for the next big thing to break out. They do this without realizing that their
attempts to replicate PAST success actually prevents––or, at the very least,
slows down––their discovery of that next big break out book/genre/subgenre.

I actually had an editor say to me that I should just do
what everyone else was doing. When I replied that I wanted to do something
different, something unique, she replied, “Well, yeah, that, too.”

Fortunately, we no longer have to depend on standard
publishers to get our work out in front of the public. I’m a writer, not a
promoter or a formatter or an artist or an editor (although I’ve done some of
that). I write. That’s what I’m called to do; that’s what I want to do. So we
incorporated a company, SillyPa Publishing, and have struck out on our on into
self-publishing. One of my sons is an artist; he’s handling book covers,
promotional videos and websites. One of my sons is a salesman/vendor; he’s
handling coding, formatting, distribution and promotions. My agent, who worked
extensively in television and radio production, is editing for me. We will see
what God does.

This is not the first time I’ve had to reinvent myself to
continue publishing, which is not to say that I am abandoning traditional
publishing. I’m putting together a new series for Love Inspired now. But I’m
excited about where God is taking me with this new venture. He’s never failed
me. I often fail Him, despite my best efforts, but He has never failed me.

I so agree with you about all of your last answer. Tell us about the
featured book.

A FAMILIAR LOVE SONG is the first book in the HOBBY RUN
Variety Praise Band series. Ten musicians meet at a battle of the bands contest
and gravitate together because of their Christian faith. They play different
types of music and are of all ages from 20 to 60-plus. Only two of them are
professionals, but they put together a unique sound that impresses the contest
producer, Maggs Marko, and she offers them a steady gig at her alcohol-free
venue, The Milking Barn, which is, yes, a converted milking barn.

Maggs has more on her mind than twice monthly band
performances, however. The oldest member of HOBBY RUN is the man she left 25
years earlier. It was one of the biggest mistakes of her life. She walked out
on their marriage and would give anything to change that, but she has terrible
secrets. They’ve both become Christians, and Wyatt cannot deny that he’s still
in love with Maggs, but forgiving her will take a superhuman kind of love and
more faith than he’s sure he has. Along the way he learns not only Maggs’s
secrets but a great deal about himself and his best friend, Drew. Is Maggs just
a familiar old love song that he can’t get out of his head, though, or is she
God’s will for the remainder of his life?

One of the most exciting things about this new series is
that a good friend of mine, award-winning gospel music writer Joyce Powell, has
agreed to write original music for our promotional videos. We’ll be laying down
tracts for that soon––just as soon as the snow melts on the roads here.

I’m excited about
this venture for you. Please give us the first page of the book.

Wyatt Ogilvie. In the flesh. The silver hair shocked her
more than the few extra pounds or the scruffy beard. Though no longer dark, his
hair remained thick and full, the hairline receding just a bit. His features
had thickened slightly, but she’d have known him anywhere. Actually, he looked
good, better than she’d have expected after all these years.

Had it really been nearly a quarter of a century since she’d
packed her car and driven away from him? Not only had that been another decade,
it had been another life, even another state. She’d been stunned to see his
name on the list of entrants here in Fayetteville,
Arkansas, so she’d taken her time
looking him up. Three days into the competition, he and his partner were still
here, and she couldn’t resist the temptation to seek him out any longer.

Would he recognize her? For some time now, she’d been
bleaching her light brown hair blond in order to hide the gray that had begun
to infiltrate her long locks. She wasn’t ready for that, though the delicate
lines around her dark eyes proclaimed the years even without the gray.
Lightening up on the eye shadow had helped, but she didn’t kid herself. She
hadn’t spotted sixty on the horizon yet, but fifty was looking smaller and
smaller in her rearview mirror.

She calculated Wyatt’s age. Sixty? Sixty-one? Man, he looked
good for the big six-oh. She shook her head. Wasn’t fair. Men aged so much
better than women. He could still play that guitar, too.

Watching his fingers pick those guitar strings, she tried
not to let his husky, raspy voice pluck her heartstrings. His voiced used to be
mellow, velvet––she still remembered the sound of it in the dark––and slurred
when he was drunk or thunderous when raised in anger. He sounded raspy now but
still retained enough elasticity to cover nearly two full octaves, and he’d
lost none of the expressiveness that had made him one of the finest lead
singers she’d ever heard.

People still stopped to listen. His audience presently
consisted mostly of other performers. They lined the canvas-covered hay bales
stacked to create sound-containing walls in the sprawling labyrinth of
corridors, alleys, dressing rooms and rehearsal areas behind five main stages
erected in an octagonal shape across 100 acres of open field at the county
fairgrounds. Topped with treated plywood, the enclosure became a watertight
city of sorts, complete with electricity, wi-fi, and air units strategically
placed. The crowds of paying fans sat or stood on the bare ground in front of
each stage, no matter the weather, but the performers and their equipment were
protected. Fortunately, because most of the competition took place in the
evenings, Arkansas
summers boasted far cooler nights than days, and so far nary a rain cloud had
darkened the horizon.

Wyatt finished the song, and a young stagehand hurried
forward, clipboard in hand, to announce the lineup.

As the college-aged functionary called off the secondary lineup,
Wyatt turned to put away his guitar. Maggs laid aside her own clipboard and
made her way through the milling throng in the backstage alley at the Second
Annual Battle of the Bands. She hitched her thumbs in the belt loops of her
spangled jeans and came to a stop behind him.

Striving for a playful tone, she said, “I told you smoking
would ruin your voice.”

He neither turned nor paused in what he was doing. “I
stopped smoking eighteen years ago, Maggs,” he replied quietly.

So he had seen and recognized her. She wondered if he’d have
sought her out on his own, if he’d have spoken at all if she hadn’t pressed the
issue. Probably not. Struggling not to feel disappointed, she put on a smile.

Arlene, I can hardly wait until my copy of the book gets
here. I’m anxious to read it. How can my readers find you on the Internet?

Thank you, Arlene, for sharing some of your life and this new book with us.Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:

I hope so, Mary. It is unlike anything I've done before, and it has certainly been fun to write thus far. I am blessed to live in an area where music is a large part of the everyday lifestyle. Because of the normally beautiful weather, people are outdoors here a lot, but they also enjoy playing music as a hobby or avocation, but then Branson, Missouri, is just 70 miles away, so I've been blessed to meet some professional musicians, as well. The whole premise was too good to pass up, especially considering what a large part of worship music is.

It's not a book specifically for youth, Janet E. It is aimed at an adult audience and deals with a married couple reunited after a 25-year separation. It is a Christian novel and very much deals with the spiritual maturity necessary to forgive, deal with reality and commit to one another.

I have been reading Arlene James' books for a lot of years and have never picked one up that I didn't fall in love with. This story appeals to me since I am now that woman who sees 50 in her rear-view mirror but 60 seems to be on the far horizon. So many romances feature much younger protagonists. It's great to see one that at least acknowledges that love isn't just for the young! Would love to win this!Pam in Ohio

I'm that woman, too, Pam! Actually, I'm already looking at 60 in the rearview mirror. :>) Thanks so much for your kind words about my books. These are going to be a little different, a little edgier. If they weren't, I'd be doing them for Love Inspired.

I read you were widowed, and I have also been widowed for just over a week now. I wonder what your best advice for new widows is? I just know he's gone! And I know he is with Jesus, but it's surreal and incredibly sad. Thanks for your advice. Sm. CA. wileygreen1(at)yahoo(dot)com

Oh, Sm, please accept my condolences. I was widowed very young, and I was so angry at God over the whole situation. I had to let go of that anger before I could truly begin to process the sadness and sense of loss, let alone accept the possibility of a new man in my life. One thing I learned is how necessary it is to allow grief to run its course. Don't try to hold it back; don't try to hold onto it. Knowing that someone you love is with the Lord is a comfort, but facing the harsh reality of not seeing him again for a long while is tough. It does no one any good to make harder than it has to be, though. My prayers are with you.